


Family

by Cigarettes_and_Valentines



Series: Voltron Shorts [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Lance is kind of a crybaby, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 18:31:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7652173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cigarettes_and_Valentines/pseuds/Cigarettes_and_Valentines
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lance misses his family, Keith is there to comfort him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family

Lance sighed as he leaned over the balcony, looking at the moonlit lands surrounding the castle. He couldn't deny that the view was beautiful. He could see across the alien landscape, covered with beautiful rock formations unlike any he’d seen on Earth. The dull grey rocks were filled with veins of some bright blue crystal and the sky was tinted a soft shade of purple. It really was a sight that he had never expected to see. He’d always wanted to explore space. Ever since he was a little kid, he had dreamed of being an astronaut. The idea of the infinite possibilities of the universe out there excited him. The fact that there was so much to explore and find had always filled him with wonder. He remembered telling his mother at the age of five that he would conquer a planet from its evil alien overlords for her. His mother had laughed and told him to hurry up and get ready for dinner. If only she knew right now that that was roughly what he was doing. Going from planet to planet, keeping them free from the evil alien overlords bent on destruction and enslaving masses of humans and aliens alike.

He wondered what they had told his family back on Earth. Did they think that he had just run away? Did they know about his role in freeing Shiro? Did they even think he was still alive? _ Oh God no. _ He didn't want to think about that. He didn't want to think about his family gathered around an empty casket. Missing In Action. That would be what they were told if they thought he was dead right? No. He didn't want to think about his family planning his funeral. He didn't want to think about how his mother would react when she found out that she could never hug her baby boy again. She would be broken, absolutely devastated. Just the thought of it made Lance’s shoulders feel heavier. Here he was, light years away from his broken-hearted mother when he should be at home, with her.

Hell, he didn’t even know how long in Earth time he'd been out here. It felt like years, but physically he hadn’t seemed to age a day. Had he been gone for years now? For all he knew, he could just be a distant memory back on Earth. And he didn't know what scared him more, his family’s pain or the fact that he’d been on here so long that there was little left for him to go back to. That was, if he could go back. He had important things to do, like saving the universe, but it would be nice if they could just stop by Earth for a vacation every once in awhile. His little brothers would have been so stoked to see Blue. 

The bottomline was, he missed Earth. Sure, here he'd made great friends and a hell of a lot of hot alien chicks, but when he looked up at the multiple moons in the night sky, he felt a tightness in his chest that just wouldn't go away. He wanted to be home. He wanted it so badly. He wanted to splash in puddles, to eat ice cream with his siblings on hot summer days, and lie back in the grass and look up at one moon in the sky.  _ His  _ moon, not these weird ones he was looking at right now.

“Can't sleep?” A familiar voice behind him asked. Lance soon around to see none other than Keith. Thankfully he had ditched the dorky crop-top jacket thing, but he still wore his fingerless gloves and belt with pockets. Really, the guy had no fashion sense. Why else would he walk around everywhere with that damn mullet?

“What are you doing here?” Lance asked. Keith had interrupted his brooding session. And that wasn't fair. Keith was a much more broody and distant person than he was and got more brooding sessions overall. Couldn't Lance have just this one with Keith bursting in?

Keith shrugged. “Same as you, I guess.”

“Came here to lament your sad damn emo life?” Lance scowled. For a moment, Keith was taken by Lance’s tone. Sure, he was used to Lance’s outbursts of poorly thought out insults towards him, but usually they were a lot more superficial than this. And besides, he could tell that there had been something off about Lance in the past few days. Not like he was concerned or anything. Okay, maybe he was a little bit concerned. It was only natural to care about someone after they’d spent so much time and gone on so many life threatening missions together. He was just being a good teammate. 

“Yes.” Keith narrowed his eyes. “I couldn’t sleep so I thought that I’d get some fresh air. Didn’t expect to see you here though.”

“”Hey! I can go wherever I want to, you know! I don’t need you following people around like some intergalactic hall monitor checking up on where they’re going all the time!” Lance replied. 

“Ouch. Intergalactic hall monitor. That’s a good one.” Keith said, leaning his elbows against the balcony. “Nice view, isn’t it?”

“Don’t you have anything better to do than stand here and make small talk?”

“Well, I could listen to Coran recounting ‘A Detailed History of Altea’ for the third time this week, but I’d rather not.” Keith kept his eyes on the landscape before him, occasionally glancing over at Lance. The blue paladin was leaning over the balcony, his face bearing an uncharacteristically sombre expression. Keith was never very good with social cues, but even he could pick up on the fact that whatever was bothering Lance wasn’t going to go away easily. So here was the time when he guessed he had to step up and fulfill his role as team member.

“So, uh… do you wanna talk or something?” Keith asked.

“Why?”

“I dunno. You just seem like you’ve got something on your mind.”

“And why should you care?”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Keith protested. “We’re part of a  _ team _ you know! And after nearly being killed about fifty times by alien spaceships, I think that maybe we’ve bonded a little. So are you going to tell me what’s wrong or not?”

“It’s...nothing.”

“Nothing doesn’t make you wake up in the middle of the night.” Keith turned to face Lance. “C’mon. Spill.” Lance hesitated, his eyes still on the alien landscape. He took a breath in and looked down.

“It’s lame.” Lance warned. 

“You’re lame.” Keith quipped. “It doesn’t matter. Just tell me.”

“I miss home.” Lance said. “We’ve been here for God knows how long, light years away from Earth, and I just… I just want to go home.” Lance buried his face in his hands and Keith watched as his silhouette shook in the moonlight.

“Are you…” Keith asked hesitantly. “Are you crying?” He stepped closer and put a hand on his shoulder. 

“No.” Lance replied, his voice muffled by his hands. “I wanna see my family. I miss my mom’s hugs and my grandma’s cooking. I know, it’s selfish. I should be out there saving the universe but it’s just hard, you know. Knowing that somewhere, out there, a million light years away is my family wondering where the hell I am.”

“I’m sorry.” Keith was unsure what else to say. Hell, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. He wasn’t used to seeing Lance like this, crying and emotionally weak. He was much more comfortable with Lance being the way he always was, full of life, laughter and poorly thought out insults. It wasn’t right seeing Lance upset. It made him feel all weird inside. “If it makes you feel any better, uh… we’re all here for you. I mean, we’re not your family or anything but me, you and everybody else, we kind of have to look out for each other.” Damn, this was a lot harder than he thought it would be. “So, you know. Don’t hold back if you wanna talk about feelings and that kind of stuff.” He nervously clapped his hand against Lance’s back. “Buddy.”

Lance sniffed. “Thanks buddy. But really, don’t worry about it. It’s not like there’s anything that can be done about it.” He let out a sigh and looked back up at the moon. “It just gets me down sometimes, that’s all.”

“It’s okay.” Keith replied, looking over at Lance who, for the record, looked absolutely stunning in the moonlight. Not that Keith  _ liked _ him like that or anything. The fact simply was that as a man with certain needs he could appreciate that a certain blue paladin just so happened to be very attractive. “Nobody’s expecting you to be happy with what’s going on here one hundred percent of the time.”  _ But man does it really make me feel bad when I see you upset. _

“Yeah, I get it.” Lance wiped his eyes and looked up at Keith. “And it’s not like I’m the only one. Everyone else probably misses their family too. Don’t you Keith?” Keith’s grip on Lance’s shoulder tightened as he looked away. 

“Keith?”

“I’ve been in foster care for as long as I can remember.” Keith replied. “I never met my parents. I have no idea who or where they are.”

“Oh.” Lance said quietly. “So you lived in an orphanage, then?”

“No, I moved around from foster home to foster home most of the time. I never really stayed in one place for more than a few months at a time.” Keith answered. “That’s kinda why I like it up here. It’s like I have my own little family, with a weird alien uncle and… are you freaking crying again?” Keith looked to Lance incredulously, as he was indeed tearing up.

“You think I’m like family?” Lance smiled. “Come here, brother, let me give you a nice, big hug!” Keith dodged Lance’s arms as he came in for a hug. 

“No way!”

“But I thought you said we were  _ brothers!” _ Lance went in for a hug again, and Keith jumped out of the way.

“Did I say we were family? I meant everyone  _ except  _ for you.” Keith said with a grin as he started to run away from Lance, who was chasing him with his arms outstretched.

“No, you said we’re family. No take backs! Now come into your brother’s loving embrace Keith, old buddy, old pal.”

“No way in hell, loser!” Keith called back over his shoulder. And when he did, he saw that Lance was beaming. Even with tears still running down his cheeks his smile had a warm feeling to it and Keith couldn't help but smile back. The two laughed as they ran around the balcony shouting back and forth between them.

“Incoming!” Lance yelled as he jumped forward and tackled Keith. They both fell to the ground, laughing.

“So are you gonna admit you’re my brother now?” Lance asked, pinning him to the ground.

“No.” Replied Keith defiantly.

“Why not?” Lance pouted. God damn it he really did look attractive in the moonlight. And with their bodies pressed together like this there was no denying that Lance was  _ really  _ attractiv. Keith didn't really know what drove him to do it. Maybe it was leftover adrenaline from being chased around or maybe it was just pure impulsivity. Whatever the reason was, while Lance was pouting, Keith leaned up to press a soft kiss to his lips. 

“That's why.” He whispered, and took advantage of Lance’s confusion to escape from under his arms and race back to his room, grinning.


End file.
